Aug 2, 2018 5 min read

Hundreds of protection-from-abuse cases are filed in Washington County Court every year, but one case that involves a Washington County judge was ordered to be sealed from public view.

Details of PFA cases, such as the circumstances that caused a person to seek a protection order, are typically part of the public record.

The case of James Quisenberry vs. Valarie Costanzo was unusual not just because Costanzo has been a Washington County judge since 2014.

The caption, or names of the plaintiff and defendant, and docket number – the “tracking number” assigned when any civil case is initiated – were also withheld from the public until Thursday, hours after the Observer-Reporter inquired about it and nearly three weeks after Quisenberry filed the case July 12.

But the names of Quisenberry and Costanzo in a tablet that is known as the “day book,” where cases are logged in by hand daily before being scanned into a computer database, had been whited out, leaving only the final three letters of the man’s first name visible along with the notation PFA-pro se, meaning the plaintiff was representing himself rather than hiring an attorney.

Prothonotary Joy Schury Ranko, when fielding an inquiry Thursday about the case from the Observer-Reporter, retrieved it on the computerized database, where only the barest procedural information about court activity is available.

A check of the tablet that included July 12 now has the parties’ names.

“I just wrote those in today,” the prothonotary said. “I filled in the names after talking with (President) Judge (Katherine) Emery. She didn’t ask me to.”

Although the names of the litigants and the docket number were revealed Thursday, details of the case remain under seal by order of Senior Judge William Nalitz.

A Washington County jurist, said Emery, would have to “recuse” or exclude himself or herself from presiding over the case of a colleague on the bench.

But Nalitz, who retired in 2014 as president judge of neighboring Greene County Court, was not elected by Washington Countians. As part of his senior status, he is assigned to Washington County by the Administrative Office of the Pennsylvania Courts to handle the county’s burgeoning caseload.

Nalitz said Thursday he had no comment on the case of Quisenberry vs. Costanzo, but when asked about the lack of a public caption or docket number, he said he had not ordered this information, which is normally part of the public record, be shrouded in any way.

“I don’t know anything about a secret docket,” Nalitz said. “I’m the out-of-town guy here in Washington County. … If you did that, where would the order go?”

The “event summary” of the case shows Nalitz granted a temporary order for protection from abuse to Quisenberry July 12, the same day it was filed and ordered to be sealed.

Nalitz retired from the Greene County bench in 2014 after serving 17 years, with nearly a decade as president judge. He has also filled in as a senior judge in Fayette County and returned to Greene for a single proceeding.

Emery said, “A temporary PFA is ex parte, (meaning) one side comes in and is giving their side, so you don’t hear the other side until the final hearing.”

Emery has not changed Costanzo’s assignment to hear criminal cases.

Two members of Costanzo’s staff said she was “unavailable” Thursday to comment on the PFA.

Pittsburgh attorney Bill Difenderfer responded by phone on her behalf.

“I truly believe that it’s nonsense,” he said. “We fully anticipate it’s going to get dismissed.”

Asked about the next court date, Difenderfer said, “There’s obviously a hearing that’s scheduled. I truly believe at the hearing it’s all going to be resolved.”

Shortly before 4 p.m. Thursday, Difenderfer called back to say he expects David Pardini, a lawyer representing Quisenberry, to file a petition Friday in Washington County Court to dismiss the PFA.

Pardini said, “To the extent that there may have been a misunderstanding between Mr. Quisenberry and Ms. Costanzo, it’s been resolved,” and he asked that no reporter attempt to contact his client again about this matter.

An online address for Quisenberry listed him as a McMurray resident.

A call to the Peters Township police department yielded a terse statement that the case had been forwarded to the Washington County District Attorney’s office.

District Attorney Gene Vittone did not immediately return a request for comment.

According to statistics compiled by the state, Washington County had 584 protection-from-abuse cases in 2016, the last year for which figures are available. From 2007 to 2016, Washington County consistently had more PFAs than other counties its size.

Costanzo, 48, is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh and its law school. She was an assistant district attorney and had experience with both civil and criminal law, then was elected magistrate for McDonald, Cecil, Robinson and Mt. Pleasant, serving for 14 years until 2014, when she became a Common Pleas Court judge.